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Tuesday, January 08, 2013

A Year of Doing Good

The book is out. That's good. Two years in the doing and the writing and the polishing and the talking about, then it is all over and there is silence. I have no control over sales. Whether people will fancy it? Whether they will have seen the publicity or been too busy to take note. Strange period this.
So what struck me about launching a book?
*you have to talk about yourself a lot. Sometimes in the car when you agree to an interview en route someplace. This can give rise to your husband and children quoting back entire sections of your patter at the drop of a hat, and pleading, downright pleading, for you not to tell that joke about the coppers not fitting into jam jars again because really it wasn't that funny the first time.
*ideally launching a book when everybody else is on holiday means you feel ever so slightly delusional. I have a book out, you tell people. Let me come on your show, appear in your paper. I do really. Call me.
*it is advisable not to read online comments. This takes an effort of will. It takes less effort when a mate texts you out of the blue saying you are doing very well, and people are just jealous and not to get upset pet. Because that makes you think - wow bet there are some really peachy comments out there. Sometimes of course they are hard to avoid like the twitter message sent straight into my feed with my name and the cheery message "You make me sick." I checked out the sender and bearing in mind he was encouraging his followers to send him song titles with the word "vagina" in them, I decided against taking it too personally.
*that you need your friends around you when you have a success in the same way you need them around you when you fail, you need them to let you obsess, and hose you down as you lose all perspective, and mop up salty tears and reassure you it will all work out in the long run, and that I count myself extremely, extraordinarily fortunate in my friendships.
*that this book was as good as I could get it, that it required a huge amount of very hard work, that I am very, very lucky to get it published.
*there is always another book written by someone else coming along the tracks far too soon and that's alright.

14 comments:

I bought your book yesterday. I was given a book token for Christmas (didn't even know they still existed). My friend and I went for coffee with our babies and as we were sitting down at a table, I saw the previous person's phone on it. It was an elderly couple with their grown up daughter. I left my baby with my friend and chased after them, handing over the phone. When I returned my friend told me that was my good deed for the day, whereon I remembered I really wanted to read your new book, having loved WITN and then seen your article in the Sunday Times. So I went and bought it.

I heard your book mentioned on the radio sometime between Christmas and New Year - perhaps on Woman's Hour? I got it on my kindle and read it in 2 days. I loved it - and am merrily recommending it to anyone who will listen.

I can't wait to read your new book. Congratulations on getting book number 3 published. Agree totally with Anon that use of the word 'sick' means awesome, cool etc. in teenspeak. Hope that makes your day better.